I would try it out before you buy. HD monitors are much better than the old analog TVs, but 1280X1024 (1920X1080 is with overscan) blown up to 36" in your face won't look as good as you expect. I recently splurged on a factory refurbished 27" thunderbolt display (2560X1440) for my Macbook Pro, coming from a Samsung 27" display that was 1280X1024. I was never very happy with the picture on the Samsung, and after switching to the Apple display I know why. Also need to watch if you use and HDMI cable to connect, some monitors will overscan and cut off the edges of the screen.

I admit I'm becoming an Apple fanboy, but there's a reason people really like their products.

However, there are plenty of IPS monitors out there for a similar price when compared to an HDTV, with higher resolution and made for desktops. The thing that's nice about big monitors is that you can have multiple programs and windows all over without needing a lot of overlap. So you can have, for example, rig control, digital software, logging, and DX spotting all running on one or two displays and easy to switch between.

I use two Dell 20" flat panels. My laptop will support an additional flat screen, or DVI /HDMI to a big screen. I am spoiled on having all three screens going at once. I recently bought a USB video "card" so I could leave all three permanently connected. I got the cheapest one I could find from TigerDirect. It was around $50.

Back in July or August I splurged on a HP 23" IPS / LED wide screen computer monitor and it's a dandy. 1920 x 1080 and as clear as an unmuddied mountain stream on a blue sky morning in January...

Loved it so much that I splurged on a Toshiba 23" TV two paychecks later. Also a very pleasing purchase and a shopping lesson: Has the same spec of 1920 x 1080 on the VGA / HDMI interface but also supports USB / NTSC and Y-Component video in HD and regular flavor. It's like a Swiss Army knife for video. Sells for $180.00 at the B - Buy store. I call it B - Buy 'cuz my money goes buh-bye every time I swing by. There's a fair chance I might spring for a 39" or 42" TV this weekend as I'm seeing some very righteous pricing on the mid size and larger LED TV's in time for Black Friday. If I upgraded the main TV that would mean the Swiss Army knife could come back to the radio room where it would become a computer monitor / TV / test bench video display. Wouldn't take much to talk myself into doing that, and assuming the video quality is comparable would be a far more versatile choice.

BTW: The only thing the Toshiba did to me was the choice of default format on the Yellow RCA jack for composite video. It will take regular NTSC if you go into setup and switch it from 'Colorstream'. My old VHS tapes look incredibly craptastic compared to native HD but that is one way of stretching the value of my X-Files library on VHS. The video is still out there.

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